The interview which appears below, was originally published on Kumudham in February 2009. ©The rights to this material are reserved to the owner. If you have any concerns or comments, please send an email to info@rahmaniac.com.
“Rahman must’ve been five years old at that time. Me and my husband visited a friend of his, a leading composer. The composer told us playfully, ‘You mentioned that your son plays harmonium.. let’s see if he can play what I play now’… He played, and Rahman listened to it and immediately played it, much to the surprise of everyone. The composer was so impressed. That incident made it clear to us that music was the field in which Rahman would shine.
He always used to have a small harmonium with him. He’d compose new tunes and show it to us. Since he was playing well, we put him in proper music training. Being supportive of him from the beginning is my only contribution to his success.”
A Mother’s Favorite
Kareema mentions that her favourite song is Snegithane (Alaipayuthey). “How many ever times you listen to it, you can’t get bored of it,” she says.
The Struggles of Success
“It is difficult to break into film music. Rahman’s plus point was that he retained and succeeded in the first film chance that he got because of God’s grace. At first, he composed the background score for Roja for 15 days continuously without proper sleep. I cried seeing my son suffer so much! I wondered if I’d pushed him into the very tough field of Film music. But all my sufferings and worries vanished as he won the national award for his first film itself!
Even before he’d got film music opportunities, he always used to be busy composing some tune or the other! Right from his childhood, Rahman had no interests other than music. He never had fun like chatting with friends or going for movies. He always used to stay inside the locked room and compose music! I used to ask him why he was straining so much. He used to reply ‘We should keep working hard! That is the effort from our side. Some day, we will get rewards (opportunities) for all our efforts!'”
Rahman’s mom has just one worry – he is so busy with work that he doesn’t eat properly! The motherly love!!
“My son doesn’t even have time to eat properly. Even if it gets delayed till 3 am, I wait for him, serve the food and then only go to bed. Otherwise, I can’t sleep properly! How many ever awards a son may get – a mom feels happy only when the son eats properly!”
The Oscar Dreams
“When Rahman was 9 years old, he played with 3 keyboards at the same time in the show called ‘Wonder Balloon‘ in Doordarshan (in DD Tamil network). After that program, everyone in our locality started talking about him.
Likewise, the whole world is talking about the Oscar buzz for Slumdog Millionaire! But, Rahman is busy working on his next film project, without thinking about the awards or participating in big celebrations. This maturity is what I learnt from Rahman. I’ll be happy, if Rahman gets the Oscar, by God’s grace!”
